1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to electronic devices in general, and particularly to a member for chassis used in an electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
Chassis of various types of electronic devices, such as a laptop personal computer (laptop PC), a tablet personal computer (tablet PC), a smartphone, and a mobile phone are required to be lightweight and thin but with high strength. Thus, a sheet-like member that includes a prepreg plate containing reinforcement fibers, such as carbon fibers, impregnated with thermosetting resin, such as epoxy resin (a fiber-reinforced resin plate) and an intermediate layer made of a foam material, for example, sandwiched therein is widely employed as electronic device chassis.
When such a member for chassis is fastened and fixed to a member for attachment by screwing, for example, a through-hole has to be formed in the thickness direction of the members, through which a fastener, such as a screw, is inserted. However, the formation of a through-hole will degrade the appearance of the product because a head of the fastener will stick out of the outer face of the fiber-reinforced resin plate as the surface layer. Furthermore, since the fiber-reinforced resin plate at the surface layer is reinforced with carbon fibers or glass fibers, it is difficult to form a countersunk hole or the like there to embed the head of a screw.
Consequently, it would be desirable to provide an improved member for chassis that can handle the above-mentioned problems.